Table

The Periodic Table of the Elements ⇒ is an organization of the chemical elements by their atomic properties which is actively in use by chemists worldwide. The Periodic Table commands respect for not only being authoritative, but also for clarity of expression.

Dmitri Mendeleev ⇒ and Lothar Meyer ⇒ are both given credit for developing the idea of organizing elements by valence ⇒ in the process of writing chemistry textbooks independently of each other. Mendeleev garners more credit than Meyer in the same way that Charles Darwin ⇒ provided substantially more insight than Alfred Russel Wallace ⇒ though both thought of natural preservation/natural selection independently of each other around the same time. Among the extra details Mendeleev proposed that were proven scientifically correct later are the elements gallium (symbol: Ga, atomic number: 31), germanium (G, 32), scandium (Sc, 21), and technetium (T, 43).

Database

SciFinder is a commercial chemical research and bibliographic database created and operated by the Chemical Abstracts Service ⇒ of the American Chemical Society ⇒ (“ACS”). The only mention of the creator of the shirt is on the left sleeve of the shirt; letting another message other than branding occupy the front of the promotional material is a welcome novelty.

Most SciFinder usage is now conducted through a web interface. At the time of the donation, SciFinder required the use of a client program installed on the user’s computer. There were two such programs; the commercially focused SciFinder, and the academic SciFinder Scholar 2006. SciFinder Scholar functionally differs from regular SciFinder on by not allowing for complete multi-database searching.

ACS is prone to operate in a way to maximize profits. Most notably, the Society sued Google over Google Scholar ⇒ for trademark infringement in relation to SciFinder Scholar. The society also generally opposes open access initiatives. PubChem ⇒,a similar database operated by the National Center for Biotechnology Information of the United States Government, is a particular target of ACS funded lobbying.

Medium

This shirt is too small for me to wear. I accepted this shirt before I decided to stop accepting medium-sized shirts for consideration into the Free Shirt Archive. Therefore, if anyone that is not too big to wear this shirt would like to have this shirt I encourage that person to contact me.

Proxy

Another issue to highlight is that this shirt was donated by proxy through Donor & Contributor Tom*. I understand why the real donor of this shirt originally did not want to be associated with the version of this site that was online at the time of donation. This is not conduct that I promote.

Nonetheless, I appreciate that the proxy donor ensured that the shirt made it to me. They could have decided to simply keep the shirt in the awesome packaging in the shape of a beaker as originally shipped on their desk. Their choice to donate demonstrates that they still care even if they are not comfortable publicly admitting such.

Gimmick

Years ago, I wrote out the full Periodic Table on a previous version of this shirt dossier. Replicating the information on the shirt without adding any new information was a waste of time that I should never have done. I realize the mistake now and have sought to create textual content that does not have better treatments elsewhere.

The stunt was one of the most popular points of conversation that others would bring up about this site. I hope that those looking for a repeat of that old trick understand where I am coming from by not doing that again.